


i found love (where it wasn't supposed to be)

by orphan_account



Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Boarding School, Bullying, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2015-09-19
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:28:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4827455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the daughter of the Headmaster of an international boarding school, Nyssa has always led a serious life: her classmates punishing her for being the daughter of an administrator, her father punishing her for fighting. She learns how to fight back in the subtle ways. She's alone and unwanted. And then along comes Sara, and everything changes.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i found love (where it wasn't supposed to be)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm finally getting around to posting some of my other ficlets to AO3 and I wanted to put this one out individually. It's the first Nyssara fic I ever wrote. I've edited it some and improved it a bit, so enjoy! Come say hi to me on Tumblr @redpendreaming!

When Nyssa was six she enrolled in her father’s boarding school in Istanbul. Her hair was in pigtails, her smile bright as she held his hand and walked into class. She was young and eager to learn and proud of her father's greatest accomplishment. By the time she was ten she resented her father for running the international boarding school with an iron fist. 

She hated him, but she owed him her life. He was her father, after all. Gratefulness was the duty of a good daughter. 

“Hey Nyssa, are you gonna tattle on us to daddy?” asked one boy with buck teeth, yanking her pigtails. "What a tattle tale!" He shoved her to the ground, and she fell hard onto the dirt.

“Stop it!” shouted Nyssa, getting up and dusting off her uniform. 

“What will you do, Nyssa?" he sneered. "Tell daddy about how terrible everyone is to you? Be a snitch? You’re weak, Nyssa. Nobody likes you.”

Nyssa gritted her teeth and walked away from the children laughing. But not before punching that boy in the face. He punched her back. Boys were the worst. She kind of hated them. 

She went home that night with a black eye and a skinned knee. She sat across the table from her father, silent and cold as the winter in the mountains. (He was just as strong and powerful too. Just as imposing.)

“Are you going to tell me about how you go that black eye?” he asked, hardly looking up at his daughter. His focus was on the newspaper before him, or upon his food. Never Nyssa, save for the obvious scars from the scuffle that afternoon. 

“I fell,” Nyssa answered simply, stabbing aimlessly at her food. 

“I don’t know if I should be more upset with you for fighting or for lying to me,” he said, the only other sound in the room his fork on his plate.

“I wasn’t fighting." She clenched her fists, opening them when she he might see and get the wrong idea. She set a steady resolve on her tone and composure. 

Headmaster al Ghul frowned. “I expect you to be a better example for the other students. Do you understand?”

Nyssa looked down. “Yes, father.” She didn’t speak to him for the rest of the night. And she never wore pigtails again. 

By the time Nyssa was twelve she learned how to fight back without getting in trouble. She could scatter crowds with a single glare. No one touched Nyssa al Ghul. (She could probably kill you.) No one was her friend. Rumor had it Nyssa was stuck up, saw herself as better than everyone else because of who her father was. Rumor had it she had practically castrated a boy for touching her. She had fire in her eyes and venom in her tongue. Don't speak to her. Don't even look at her. The Heir to the Demon, they called her. 

In truth, Nyssa was just lonely, and she expected that she would live that way her entire life. The sooner she accepted it the happier she would be. It was her fate. A good daughter accepted her fate, though fought back silently where she could. 

When she was fifteen, Nyssa attempted dating a boy. He was cute. Blonde, British, the exact kind of boy that all of the other girls would swoon over in her class. It ended poorly when he discovered her school reputation and suddenly began making fun of her. That made everything a little bit worse for her. And she realized then that she didn't actually like boys. They were gross and rude and frankly unnecessary. She shouldn't have been shocked by the revelation. Still, it isolated her even more. 

Alone. Unable to talk to anyone, unable to tell anyone about the girls she loved. 

Nyssa graduated the boarding school at eighteen and immediately began her university studies at the closest university to the boarding school. She didn’t have a choice in the matter. She never had. Nyssa was expected to teach at the school as soon as she was able. Within four years, Nyssa would be a teacher at the school she grew up hating. 

Nyssa didn’t want to teach. She wanted to travel, to learn and experience the world. She wanted anything but this life as her father's property, as the school's property. 

And then along came Sara.

Sara.

She met her in her first English class. People at the school already seemed to know her. She was well liked, a pretty blonde thing from the States doing some sort of study abroad program. Sara smiled at Nyssa on the first day of class and oh, Nyssa's stomach did a flip. Maybe she was someone who could see her as, well, a person. Someone who she could see as a person. Although really, who was she kidding? A gorgeous, outgoing girl like Sara would never, could never love someone as dark and broken as her. It was not her fate to be loved. (And she would resist falling in love as much as she could.)

But Sara was a stranger in a foreign land, isolated from those most like her. She didn't know or understand the culture and Nyssa could tell it bothered her. So she stepped in. 

"It's okay, most foreigners don't understand it either," said Nyssa laughing at yet another of Sara's cultural mishaps. 

Sara smiled at her, and Nyssa knew that she was very much in danger for falling for this darling bird with the most beautiful smile. For once, she dared hope that she might have someone. Even if Sara only ever saw her as a friend, it was something. 

The two of them became fast friends. But it wasn’t until the day that Sara found out about Nyssa’s family and her past that Nyssa knew she had fallen in love. (What a dangerous, treacherous word.)

One of the boys from the boarding school had found her. He had gone to the same university, and her demons had come back to haunt her. 

“So, Nyssa, are you gonna go back crying to your precious Headmaster when he finds out people here hate you, too?” he asked with a leer. "Does he know his daughter is worthless to everyone else around her?"

Nyssa glared at him and turned away, her usual response to such behavior. They were nineteen. They should be past this by now. It was immature and rude and ugh, why did there have to be tears in her eyes?

But Sara. Sara shoved this boy. “Hey, back off! Nyssa is an amazing woman. You should treat her with the respect she deserves. She deserves better than scum like you picking on her for something so childish. Grow the fuck up.”

“What, Nyssa has a pet now?” he asked. "You should know you're hanging out with the untouchable girl. Sent all the kids running on the playground. You should think about who you're friends with. And if you're looking for a good time, ditch her and uh, call me."

Sara punched him, effectively breaking his nose.

Nyssa smiled a rare, beautiful smile. Sara turned to her, grabbed her hand, and walked away. “Come on, Nyssa. Let’s get out of here.”

“You didn’t have to do that, Sara,” said Nyssa, feeling downright giddy that Sara had actually held her hand, if only for a brief period of time. She'd punched that stupid boy for her when she'd wanted to do it. Where Nyssa had to stay compliant, Sara had outright punched the bastard.

Sara shook her head. “No woman should ever have to suffer at the hands of man. Especially that piece of shit,” she replied. “You deserve so much better, Nyssa. I don’t care who you are or where you come from. If people really knew you, they’d see just how amazing you are. Just like I do.”

Nyssa had to keep herself from kissing Sara. She said nothing in response. 

“Come on, we’ve got English to study. We don’t have to talk about this anymore if you don’t want to.”

That next semester, Nyssa and Sara became roommates. It was simultaneously perfect and frustrating. Nyssa loved Sara, but Sara wasn’t hers. Sara had dated several guys, and once had a fling with another girl, but that was only when Sara was drunk. She wasn’t sure Sara could or would ever love her the way Nyssa loved her. Seeing her walk around the room in her underwear only provided Nyssa with far too much sexual frustration than could be healthy.

So Nyssa did what she always did when she had an emotion she didn’t know what to do with. She retreated. She stopped talking to Sara, hoping that her crush on her best friend and roommate would go away. 

It didn’t. It got worse.

Nyssa was in love with her roommate and she didn’t know what to do with it. And they were hardly friends anymore, since Nyssa had slowly begun to cut her out. Sara eventually cornered her one evening after classes while in their room. 

“You haven’t been talking to me lately. Why?” demanded Sara, crossing her arms.

Nyssa shook her head. “It’s nothing, Sara,” she answered coldly, waving her off with a flick of the wrist.

“Did I do something wrong? Are you mad at me? Come on, Nyssa! You pull away from people, yes. I know this about you. But you’ve never done this with me and I’m just…I’m hurt and confused. You’re my best friend and I want to know what's going on in that pretty little head of yours. Please. Talk to me.”

Nyssa saw the hurt in Sara’s bright blue eyes and it broke her. She sat Sara down and took a seat next to her on the bed. “Sara, I…” she couldn’t get it out. Nyssa didn’t do vulnerable. Even with Sara, she couldn’t do this. She looked down, unable to look her in the eye. Unable to speak, unable to breathe.

But she had to do this. 

“Tell me, Nyssa. I promise, whatever it is, I can handle it. You’re my best friend, you can tell me anything.” Sara took Nyssa's hand in hers, and Nyssa nearly winced.

“I don’t know how to tell you,” said Nyssa. Her heart beat fast, palms sweating. She could feel unwelcome tears brimming in her eyes. “That’s the thing, Sara. You’re more than just a friend to me. I care about you deeply. With my whole heart. I....I love you Sara." The words came out of her mouth and her eyes widened in shock. "I’m sorry. I shouldn't have said that. I know it’s improbable that you would ever love someone like me, and I do apologize if it makes you uncomfortable, but that’s why I haven’t been talking to you. I can’t stand being around you knowing that you would never love someone like me.”

Sara smiled at Nyssa, her eyes glistening. “Oh Nyssa, I know,” she said, stroking Nyssa’s hair. Nyssa looked up at her, and Sara cupped her cheek.

Nyssa wrinkled her brow. “You know?”

Sara giggled. “Of course I do. Nyssa, I know everything about you. I’ve known for a while now. But I wanted you to tell me yourself. I love you, Nyssa. I do. You're my best friend and I can't imagine my life without you." Sara paused, letting her hand drop from Nyssa's face. "I love you so much."

“You do?” Nyssa just couldn’t seem to stop asking questions. She looked down. 

Sara put her hand under Nyssa’s chin and gently turned her face toward her own. “Listen to me, Nyssa. I love you.”

Several stray tears ran down Nyssa’s cheeks before she abruptly leaned in and kissed Sara on the lips. After a few seconds, Nyssa quickly pulled back. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly.

Sara shook her head, smiling. “Don’t be. I liked it.” She wrapped her arms around Nyssa, who was almost overwhelmed with love. This time, Sara kissed Nyssa, and Nyssa could have sworn that it felt like flying. She had never been loved. But now she was. She was Sara's beloved.

“I love you,” said Sara in between kisses. She could feel Nyssa smiling and crying in response. Eventually they stopped kissing and Sara just held Nyssa there in her arms. “I won’t leave you. I love you. I’m never going to let you go.” Sara kept whispering those precious words in her ears, and Nyssa held onto them and to Sara. She had found something good and beautiful in her life, someone who truly made her happy, and Nyssa never planned on letting go of this incredible woman. Sara made her life better. Hopeful. Loved. 

Sara was the greatest thing to happen to Nyssa. And even though Nyssa wasn’t sure she believed it, Nyssa was the greatest thing to happen to Sara.


End file.
